Re: Creating alias programatically
Re: Creating alias programatically
- Subject: Re: Creating alias programatically
- From: Rainer Brockerhoff <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:23:07 -0300
At 18:15 -0500 23/09/08, Ken Thomases wrote:
>On Sep 23, 2008, at 5:54 PM, Rainer Brockerhoff wrote:
>>That's news to me... I really can't recall right now where the alias file format was officially documented, but in the Classic days it was quite acceptable to create them yourself...
>
>From the legacy Inside Macintosh <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/Toolbox/Toolbox-459.html>:
>...
>From legacy Technical Note TB535: Finder Q&Aa <http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tb/tb_535.html>:
>...
>>Once again, DTS urges that you not create alias files from within an application.
>
>Just because the format was documented doesn't mean that Apple supported the creation of alias files by third-party applications.
Thanks for setting me straight on that (also to Charles Srstka).
I dug out my paper copy of Inside Mac VI from last millenium's stratum in my office, and indeed it confirms what you say. However, it also says storing alias records in files for private use was already generally allowed. Since the format of the alias record itself isn't documented, even today, this indicates that Apple still can introduce new formats (as they have done since then), but on the other hand, for all practical purposes, stored records should work until alias records become completely unsupported. In other words, the Finder may even change its current implementation of alias files, but the old format should still work.
In Mac OS X 10.1.x days and up to now, my XRay utility had commands to create alias files in various formats; no problems ever were reported. In the present situation, where the legacy resource file format, etc. is for all intents set in stone, but many things still depend on it (custom icons, icon badges, alias files, and so forth), I would say that, for most purposes, _today_ it's safe to create an alias file on HFS volumes, despite those old warnings.
I hasten to add this is my personal, perhaps cynically pragmatic, view. ;-)
--
Rainer Brockerhoff <email@hidden>
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
"In the affairs of others even fools are wise
In their own business even sages err."
Weblog: http://www.brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php
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